


To age and be old

by Rogercat



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Choices, F/M, Fourth Age, Gen, Gondor, Growing Old, Mortality, Old Age, Older Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 13:57:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18500410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Arwen thinks a little over choosing mortality





	To age and be old

Arwen had never regretted her choice, even now when her hair is more grey and silver rather than black as in the past, her face starting to show wrinkles. Yes, she missed her parents, all the faces she once had known back in Imladris, but at least Elladan and Elrohir had chosen to not sail until that she had passed. 

 

“We think it could lessen the grief for our parents, if we bring along all the letters you have written and the gifts you have chosen for us to bring to them.”

 

She smiled at her brothers. 

 

“I am not trying to think of the sadness I will leave behind, I intend to finally meet uncle Elros and everyone else in our family that was mortal and dead long before we three was even born.” 

 

Somehow, Arwen feels that old age is a very different beauty, the kind very few Elves could understand for all of that they might be survivors all the way back from the First Age. She feels more connected to her kingdom in a way that does not mark her as a Queen or mother to the royal children, not when she now is sharing all the natural changes the female population have to deal with.   

 

“I feel...closer to great-grandfather Dior now when I am a mortal myself, somehow. Yes, he was mortal straight from birth and very unlikely be immortal, but I think he would like to keep some company from his family...since we do not know if he and Nimloth got to share a afterlife, or what happened to their twin sons.”

 

That mystery had been something Arwen had wondered a lot about as a child so long ago, and once had dreamed to solve before she had grown to understand that it would be impossible. 

 

But perhaps now, with the unfamiliar Path of Men as her afterlife, she could maybe find something few people knew. She had chosen a mortal life for the love she bore to Aragorn, yes, but also to be free from the shadow of her great-grandmother Luthien. She had been the Evening Star of the Elves left in Middle-earth, but she had wanted her own fate. 

 

And that had this choice offered. So she had chosen, and never regretted. If the price was to lose her elven beauty and immortal life, well, there was always far worse choices to be made.    

 


End file.
